The empty lot at 125 Charlotte St. in downtown Rochester could see some changes as Rochester City Council approved the sale and development of the area.
This vote comes after the City of Rochester and developer Hinge Homes revealed in March plans to build 11 townhomes. The townhomes are intended to be affordable homeownership opportunities, governed by income requirements and granting fee simple ownership.
This plan to build townhomes has been met with controversy as several community members expressed preserving the property as green space.
What’s the background on this piece of land? The parcel was created as a part of the city’s Inner Loop East project. The space was originally set to be a larger mixed-use residential building with a parking garage.
Councilmember Mary Lupien said she was not against the project as she described the plans as innovative and new, but she hopes they find a way to give neighbors a space to connect and build community.
“I just don’t want to take away this space before we give them something to replace it,” Lupien said. “The Charlotte neighbors across incomes, cultures, abilities said clearly that this space is important to them and it gives people a place to connect and that’s a different kind of wealth other than financial.”
Councilmember Stanley Martin said they spent a lot of time listening, researching and engaging with the community over the matter and mentioned how over 800 people signed a petition opposing the development.
In addition to hearing opposition to the development, Martin said she has received support and sincere hopes of the plans resulting in the creation of 11 townhomes.
“This proposal ultimately, for me, created a false choice between a proposed homeownership opportunity and maintaining green communal space,” Martin said. “This proposal was very difficult to weigh, but my vote is a rejection of the idea that we can’t have both a green space and affordable housing in the same space.”
During his comments over the topic, Councilmember Michael Patterson reminded people that the space was never a park and was not designed to be one, further noting how it was originally queued up to be a daycare.
When it came to the overall situation, Patterson said it looked like a matter of segregation.
“I ain’t never heard anybody vote against no housing development nowhere else in the city, but we come to a white neighborhood and all of a sudden it’s, ‘Oh my goodness, let us not integrate this space, let us fill in the pool,'” Patterson said.
The sale and development of the space was approved with a 7-2 vote, with Lupien and Martin voting no.
—Kerria Weaver works as the Government and You reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle, with a focus on how government actions affect communities and neighborhoods in Rochester and in Monroe County.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester approves townhomes on contested East End green space
Reporting by Kerria Weaver, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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